Join us for an in-person Countway Reads book discussion!

About the event: 

Storytelling is at the heart of medical and public health practice and Countway Library is here to help foster this tradition. Our Countway Reads initiative invites the community to read and learn together by engaging with creative works by people from all walks of life. 

For this edition of Countway Reads, we are reading Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System by Sonya Huber. Huber addresses the nature and experience of invisible disability, including the challenges of gender bias in our health care system, the search for effective treatment options, and the difficulty of articulating chronic pain. She makes pain a lens of inquiry and lyricism, finds its humor and complexity, describes its irascible character, and explores its temperature, taste, and even its beauty.

These book discussions, held each semester, are open to all Harvard ID holders and facilitated by Countway Library librarians. Light refreshments will be provided. Registration is limited, so sign up early!

About the book:

Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System by Sonya Huber

Rate your pain on a scale of one to ten. What about on a scale of spicy to citrus? Is it more like a lava lamp or a mosaic? Pain, though a universal element of human experience, is dimly understood and sometimes barely managed. Pain Woman Takes Your Keys, and Other Essays from a Nervous System is a collection of literary and experimental essays about living with chronic pain. Sonya Huber moves away from a linear narrative to step through the doorway into pain itself, into that strange, unbounded reality. Although the essays are personal in nature, this collection is not a record of the author’s specific condition but an exploration that transcends pain’s airless and constraining world and focuses on its edges from wild and widely ranging angles.

About the factilitator:

Countway Reads is faciliated by Countway's Lead Collection & Knowledge Management Librarian, Matthew Noe. Matthew is a world-renowned expert on graphic medicine and is an advocate for the importance of reading for not just information, but for enjoyment and community, at all levels of education. Find out more about Matthew on his Harvard Library staff page and learn more about graphic medicine on Countway's Graphic Medicine landing page.

Learn more about the Countway Reads initiative at countway.info/reads.